


Winter Cheer

by Komatsu



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bravely Secret Santa 2019, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 11:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21968443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komatsu/pseuds/Komatsu
Summary: Bravely Secret Santa Fills for Tomi/Pechy!Nonshippy Option: Edea, Alternis & Braev bringing a present to Mahzer while she’s in the hospitalNonshippy Option: Pre-memories Ringabel can’t recall what christmas is, and the gang decides to throw him his first christmas partyShippy Option: Alternis and Tiz cuddled up by the fire one lonely night
Relationships: Tiz Arrior/Alternis Dim
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	1. The Family Portrait

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas, Tomi!

For a day in the middle of winter, it was clear and bright. The sun, which was often not seen for long hours, was high overhead as the carriage from Central Command stopped in front of the Central Healing Tower.

The door opened and a small figure dressed in red tumbled out. She righted herself before hitting the ground, landing neatly on two feet.

A boy dressed in black followed her, his words slightly muffled by the scarf drawn tightly over his face. Only his wide brown eyes and tufts of his blonde hair were visible. "Edea," Alternis Dim scolded. "You should be more careful. That isn't ladylike."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Edea, Alternis," Braev Lee said to them both as he descended from the carriage behind them. "Behave."

They were there as a family, after all. 

Just the week before, Mahzer had come down with a cold that was made all the more worse by her condition. In an abundance of caution, she and Braev had decided that she would go to the Central Healing tower, even if that meant she might miss the Reunion Festival that the whole family had planned to attend together. 

Edea, who was on break from the military academy, and Alternis, who was on leave from his assignment in Eisenberg, may have been disappointed, but there were more important things to consider. They had decided, together, that they wanted to do something for Mahzer to make her stay a bit more palatable. 

"Oh, hello!" Mahzer said warmly to them, surprised as they entered her regular room. She was sitting in an armchair, a book in her hands. Edea bounded over to her and Mahzer stood to hug her.

"Hello, Mother!"

"Hello, Mrs. Lee," Alternis added in, not quite bounding but crossing the room all the same so that he could receive a hug. He stiffened only a _little_ bit when her arms wrapped around him and squeezed.

Braev was right behind him, and he kissed his wife on the cheek.

"I wasn't expecting you today," Mahzer confessed as she sat back down. Edea and Alternis sunk down onto the leather couch in the room, and Braev pulled up a second chair. "Is everything alright?"

"It's fine." Braev waved away her concern. "The children wanted to see you."

Alternis tried not to flush and instead offered a nervous smile when Mahzer's eyes turned to him. "We wanted to see how you were doing… you seem like you're doing better."

"Now that the three of you are here, I'm doing quite well," she replied.

Edea was rummaging around in the bag they'd brought with them. "We wanted to bring you your presents," she said, and pulled out three wrapped gifts. After examining the tags, she handed two to Alternis for safe-keeping and held the third one out. It was wrapped in light pink paper, taped more than a little haphazardly, and was very soft. "This one is from me, Mother!"

"Oh!" Mahzer exclaimed, but she took the package despite her surprise. "You know you didn't need to, dear. All of you."

"Of course we did," Alternis tried to protest. Ever since he had joined the family, Mahzer and Braev had always gotten him presents around mid-winter. Now that he was old enough to earn his own money, he was determined to pay them back multiple times over for the kindness they had shown him.

"Here, just open it," Edea insisted. "Alternis helped with my present. I hope you like it."

Edea's present was a giant baby blue scarf that she had knit herself. Alternis had helped by acting as a model, wearing the scarf to test the length. He wasn't sure how he felt about Edea blabbing that out. 

"It's lovely," her mother said as she looked over it. "Thank you, Edea. Thank you, Alternis."

"You can open my present later," Braev said. He took it from Alternis's hands and moved to set it aside on the hospital room dresser. "After the children have left."

Edea made a face. "Then open Alternis's gift." She lifted it up from his lap before he could protest and carried it over to the other woman. Oh no, oh no. Alternis needed a few more minutes to emotionally prepare himself. He took a breath.

His package was flat and square, and Mahzer was careful as she unwrapped it, seemingly recognizing what it was from the shape and the feel of it. The paper fell open to reveal the canvas that he had worked hard on over the past few months, during his moments of leave.

"Oh, Alternis," Mahzer said, eyes bright and shiny. "Did you make this yourself? It's beautiful."

'It' was a portrait he'd made of the Lee family, similar to the ones that Edea and Braev had hanging on their walls. However, the Edea in those portraits had been quite young; not as energetic and wild. In the version he'd painted, she was closer to the age that she was now, and dressed in her academy uniform. Mahzer looked young and healthy, and Braev was standing tall, his hand on Edea's shoulder. They hadn't had to pose for it; he'd memorized their features and hoped he'd memorialized them in the portrait, even if it wasn't very good.

"F-for your hospital room," he managed to say. His cheeks felt warm. 

"I'll hang it up now," Braev said. He stood to walk to the door, likely to borrow tools from the nurses.

"Wait, dear," Mahzer called after him. Then, she turned back to Alternis. "It's incomplete, isn't it?"

He stared. "What did I forget?" When she offered it back to him, he took it in his hands, looking it over. It seemed to be shaded fine. The background was plain, but it would do; it looked more like an official portrait in that way… he had even remembered to sign his name, as Holly had reminded him that he should.

"You're not in it."

… oh. He looked down at the picture. "Should I be?"

"Of course!" Edea said, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "You're part of the family too, Alternis! Besides, the picture looks a little lopsided. There's extra space beside Mother."

That… was true. He hadn't sketched it out correctly and had hoped no one noticed. "Ah, I…"

"You should take it back and add yourself to it," Braev told him. He took the portrait now and looked it over. "I think that's an excellent idea. We can hang it up in here when you're finished, so everyone can see your work."

His face was feeling overly warm now, and he ducked it down into his chest, avoiding their gazes.

"You should paint yourself in your graduation suit," Edea decided. "To match me!"

Mahzer beamed. "I would love that. I remember how proud we were of you that day."

"V-very well." That wouldn't be so bad. He still had the outfit in his closet to refer back to, and though he'd have to figure out how to style his hair so that it wouldn't look terribly drab for the portrait, he was already figuring out how to add himself into the painting. Perhaps… if he could be so bold… Braev's other hand could be on his shoulder?

It was nearly summer by the time he managed to finish the portrait, considering that he'd had to return to Eisenberg to finish his assignment. Upon returning to Eternia, he found himself promoted to the Council of Six, and with several weeks of forced, accrued vacation with which to paint. 

The portrait found itself in Lady Mahzer's hospital room shortly thereafter, to keep her company during her stays.


	2. First Time for Everything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ringabel has no idea what Crystmas is, but luckily he's got three non-amnesiacs there to show him the way.

Florem had a milder climate than Ancheim had, but it was to Ringabel's surprise when he looked outside of the inn one day and realized… it was snowing! Yes, the air had been getting much colder, and even the most vibrant of women had begun to bundle themselves up with mittens and thicker jackets, but he had never thought it might be cold enough to snow. Was this normal?

He asked the others.

"This is snow?" Edea snorted. "Just wait until we get to Eternia. Then you'll see _real_ snow."

Tiz had a bit more tact. "It snows in Caldis now and then, too. It'll probably clear up soon, though. Florem doesn't seem to need to prepare for heavy snow, and it's a bit warmer."

Agnès nodded her agreement, her cheeks flushed with both excitement and the chill. "Yes, I remember that it would snow now and again when Olivia and I were children. It was always wonderful to see, but never lasted long."

"We should go shopping for winter clothes," Edea suggested.

The Vestal merely shook her head, smiling. "No need for that. A good coat, a scarf, and all will be well. The snow will melt within days. The flowers only need a small time to rest."

"I wanted to go shopping for winter clothes…"

Ringabel wanted to go shopping for winter clothes too, something more than the leather coat that he'd purchased last week when the temperature took a dip, but there were more pressing issues at hand.

"I've never been in the snow!" As far as he could remember. "What should we do?"

"Have a snowball fight," Edea suggested. She pounded her fist into a hand.

"There's probably enough snow to build a small snowman right now," Tiz added.

"I wonder if Florem will celebrate Crystmas this year, given the state that it's in," Agnès thought out loud to herself, and Ringabel's budding thoughts derailed entirely. Crashed and burned.

"What's Crystmas?" he asked.

All three of his friends looked over at him, startled.

"What do you mean, what's Crystmas? _I_ know what Crystmas is and I'm not even Crystalist!" Edea exclaimed.

"We celebrate it in Caldis too."

"I must have forgotten! I _do_ have amnesia!" Ringabel defended himself, holding his hands up in surrender. Yes, it was true that he knew some of the basic facts of the world - the phases of the moon, the seasons, the directions - but they should have well realized by now that he'd forgotten intricate details of the world itself. He had barely remembered what a holiday even was!

They looked contrite. "Sorry," Tiz said, rubbing the back of his head. 

"You do so well most of the time that… well," Edea trailed off, looking embarrassed. "Never mind."

"Crystmas is a time when families get together to celebrate the coldest night of the year," Agnès started. "They fill the night with prayer and ..."

"Open presents!" Edea butt in. "Santa Claus visits all the good boys and girls overnight and gives them many presents. So you probably won't get anything, Ringabel."

Tiz gave Edea a Look. "People celebrate together, and gift one another presents as well. We don't… really have Santa Claus in Caldis. People say it's just a rumor started from the King being so generous."

"Huh?" Edea asked him. "We have Santa in Eternia!" She paused, thinking. "The King sort of does look like him."

"We don't give presents for Crystmas in the Wind Temple," Agnès interrupted Edea, giving the girl a look that clearly said 'Behave!'. "Not with material gifts, at least. We gift each other with food and well wishes for the coming year."

"The Crystmas Feast is the last big meal of the year," Tiz said wistfully. Edea nodded her agreement.

"It sounds wonderful," Ringabel murmured. A small feeling of jealousy boiled in his stomach. His friends were quite fortunate that they had the memories of such a night to return to. Happier times, with their families. Had he ever had chance to celebrate?

His three friends glanced at each other.

"Hey," Edea said. "I'm hungry. Go get me something to eat."

"Ah, alright?" he agreed, confused about the sudden change of topic. Yes, it was time for breakfast, but what about the winter festivities? "What would you like, Edea?"

He was very lucky that he had a journal, because Edea's order was large, and she had pressed him into ordering for Tiz and Agnès as well. Very well, he said with a flourish. He was more than happy to please his friends. Did they want coffee as well? Tea for Agnès, of course.

After breakfast, taking longer than he would have liked to carry the meal back into their rented room, the four parted ways.

"Let's go shopping," Edea said to Ringabel. She wound her arm around his and tugged him out of his seat. Ringabel raised an eyebrow. He would never turn down an opportunity to spend time with Edea, but that was abrupt, wasn't it?

"For what?" he asked her. 

"Clothes, of course." She rolled her eyes. "I need you to carry everything."

"Very well."

He _did_ notice the way she stuck her tongue out at Tiz and Agnès before they left and the small paper she threw into the trash on their way out. Something was afoot, and he was determined to find out what it was. 

However, no matter how he pleaded or prodded with Edea, asking her what was going on, she refused to answer.

They spent half the morning going shopping for clothes, weaving in and out of boutiques. It was near lunch-time before she decided on a light pink jacket, one that was stuffed with cotton and promised to be _just_ warm enough to get her through the short Florem winter season. He bought one for himself as well, a light blue that would make compliment his eyes, and even managed to get the address for a cute looking shop clerk who had also given him a discount.

"Ugh," Edea said, rolling her eyes as he practically pranced down the street from the shop. "Why are we doing this?"

"Why are we doing what?" he asked, somewhat confused. She was the one who'd wanted to get clothes!

"Never mind."

Rather than going back to the inn for lunch, Edea kept him in the shopping area. They tried a new restaurant, Ringabel flirted with the waitress, and Edea made him pay for her meal, including all three desserts. After lunch, it was time for more shopping. This time, she led him to a store he'd been eyeing their entire visit in the city.

"Why are we here?" he asked, confused. He wouldn't complain, but it didn't seem like anything she might be interested in. Called Michelle's, it seemed to have a variety of art supplies. He'd seen some of their sketchbooks and paints through the window. Recently, he had been practicing portraits with graphitel, but had yet to achieve a level of skill he was satisfied with… still, the paints had been tempting. Color!

"I need some new knitting needles," she said loftily, and left it at that. He dutifully followed her inside.

Rather than head for the sewing section, she started to wander the store, going up each and every isle. Ringabel wandered behind her, keeping one eye out for something he might like. He had purchased a notebook in Caldisla where he kept doodles and small notes, but surely there was nothing wrong with experimenting with real art supplies, especially if they were waiting in the region for news.

When he stopped in front of a tin filled with charcoal pencils and picked it up, Edea turned to him. "Do you like that?" she asked him.

"A bit," he admitted. He'd been having to resort to using the side of the pencil to shade, but perhaps this would be better; it seemed it would blend better, at least. Oh, and it came with an eraser too! "I might purchase it."

"Maybe you should wait for a sale?" she suggested. "You could buy it and other items then too! What else might you like?"

"Will we still be in Florem when a sale happens?" he asked her, a bit confused. Yes, he needed to be more responsible with his money, that was true. What was she getting at?

"Uh, maybe. Probably? Come on, what else do you like?"

"Ah…" Put on the spot now, he turned to see her staring with her hands on her hips and immediately wilted under her intense gaze. "This? That?" 'This' was an art easel. And 'that' was a set of beginner paints. He had already imagined himself standing behind the easel, painting some of the beautiful Florem girls. And of course, the beautiful girls that he traveled with.

She smiled. "Sounds good!" Something about the smile was unnerving.

They had just left the store when Edea gasped. "Oh! I forgot to buy knitting needles."

"Is that not why we went there?" Ringabel asked her, confused. She flapped a hand at him.

"Never mind that. Why don't you wait for me uh… I don't know, down at the pub there? I could use a snack."

Ringabel shrugged. They had passed it earlier and he'd noticed a cute redhead working. He was perfectly fine with waiting there for her, and he headed off as she ran back into the store.

What he was _not_ perfectly fine with was Edea taking so long to return. By the time she finally entered the pub, breathless and with red cheeks, he'd gotten both the redhead's address _and_ two free drinks. It was mid-afternoon, and already the sun was going down toward the horizon.

"What took you so long?" he asked Edea, slightly irritated. "And where are the knitting needles?"

She was still wheezing as she leaned onto the bar next to him. "I forgot to buy them."

"Were you running?" he asked, curious. What was going on? Why would she have been running? Wasn't he supposed to be the one with memory issues? "Getting into trouble?"

"Oh shut up," she bit, though with a fraction of her usual annoyance. "Come on… we've got one more place to go."

"You still haven't told me what's going on," he said to her as they left the pub. Edea was rubbing at her side.

"Nothing's going on, Ringabel. Just… let's go get some dessert for tonight."

"Dessert? What's going to happen to dinner?"

She shrugged. "Tiz and Agnès are figuring that out."

_What_ were they planning? He had more questions, but she shut him up by stamping on his foot. He hobbled all the way to the best sweet shop in the city, and by the time Edea had convinced him to carry three pies, two tubs of jelly ice cream, and a box of cookies back to the inn, he really just wanted to sit down.

"I'll take these," Edea said, lifting the boxes out of his arms. She jerked her head towards the door. "You can enter the room first."

"Gladly," he muttered. He wanted to rest and relax, and spend a few hours journaling his day before dinner. However, when he opened the door, he was greeted with - 

"Happy Crystmas!" Tiz and Agnès shouted. He stood, shocked, as Tiz opened a cracker with a bang, shooting silvery glitter all over his hair and face. His hair! Ringabel reached up to carefully brush the glitter away from his locks, cringing.

"Happy Crystmas!" Edea said from beside him, and she shoved her way past him into the room to set down the boxes of food.

"What's all this?" he asked. Tiz grabbed his wrist and pulled him so that they could close the door. Looking around, he saw that it had been decorated in his absence. Red and green paper chains hung from the ceiling, and somehow, they had found shiny garlands to weave around the desk and bed legs. A small tree stood in the corner, covered in baubles. Three boxes, wrapped in plain paper, were underneath it. Tiz and Agnès were both wearing red hats with fluffy white trim. "I'm confused."

"You haven't had a Crystmas party before," Agnès reminded him, her cheeks flushed with excitement. "So we thought we might have one with you. It will be your first, won't it?"

His own cheeks were beginning to feel quite warm, and his eyes were suddenly hot. He swallowed, throat feeling tight. "Y-yes, as far as I am aware…"

They had done this… for him? They had wanted to throw him a party to replace memories that he'd lost? Forget having had Crystmas parties in the past, with people he could no longer remember. In the here and now, with his friends, this was the only party that mattered.

Tiz lead him to the table. "Agnès says it's a Crystalist tradition to make ornaments for later years. A physical way of counting your blessings. She insisted."

"Yes, I want us to all make an ornament," Agnès replied, chin high. Her 'ornaments' were little wooden discs, perfect to be drawn or written on, and they seemed to have borrowed paint from somewhere, judging by how messy it was, along with paint brushes that had seen better days, their bristles frayed and disorderly. Still, Ringabel was determined to make his look perfect.

The four of them got to work, Ringabel bending close (ever mindful of his hair) so that he could first sketch out a design using a pencil, then carefully fill in as much of the detail with the paints.

The other three finished first. Edea's ornament was a simple snowflake, while Tiz was a fluffy sheep wearing a bright red hat. Agnès had opted for a more Crystalist traditional design, a symbol that they'd seen often in the temples, along with her name and age. Ringabel's design on the other hand… well, he could have done better, he supposed, if he had purchased those paints from the store. It was _supposed_ to be four people, but the limited color selection along with the old brushes meant that it was a blob with four smaller blobs, and their faces were very rudimentary, little more than dots for eyes and a line for the mouth. However, he hoped that by putting in the hair colors (more or less) correctly, the others would know what he'd meant.

"That's nice, Ringabel," Tiz said to him as he finished up. "That's meant to be all of us?"

So there was hope for him after all! "Yes," Ringabel replied, smiling down at the picture. He supposed putting Edea's red bow into it had helped make it obvious who it was supposed to be. "How else am I to commemorate my first Crystmas with you all?"

"With presents," Edea complained. She'd been laying on the floor, waiting for him to finish. "You should open them up."

"In time," Agnès interjected, giving Edea a Look that could rival Tiz's. 

"Let's have a few more festivities," suggested Tiz. "Then Ringabel can open his presents."

They had dinner, something of a small feast. Tiz and Edea were used to eating turkey in the middle of their homeland celebration, but given that Florem was largely vegetarian, their options had been limited. Ringabel instead sat with his friends and dined on honey roasted squash and asparagus, the food heating him up almost as much as the company. It was very good, though he ended up pleading out of dessert, as full as he was. More for Edea, he'd said.

At some point, Tiz had managed to convince him to put on a hat of his own, and though it was precariously perched, to avoid ruining his hair, it only served to add to his good mood, and he willingly joined Edea on the floor, chin in his hands as he listened to her talk about past Crystmases with her family, even if it did occasionally involve stories involving that friend of hers, Alternis. Ringabel had yet to encounter the man, and wasn't sure he want to, given the way that he had treated everyone.

There was no wine, because Agnès and Tiz were underage and had been unable to buy it, but there was fizzy grape juice that bubbled in his throat and made his heart seem even lighter than before, which shouldn't have been possible! 

It would get even lighter when Edea announced that it was time for presents.

At first, his heart plummeted. "Wait," he said. "I didn't get anything for you three."

Tiz was shaking his head. "This is your party, Ringabel. On Crystmas day you can get us presents if you'd like, but for now they're all yours."

Ringabel frowned. "Are you quite certain? It seems impolite."

"If you want, you can consider paying for my lunch today my present," Edea said. Agnès nodded her agreement.

"Yes, and the ornament you made… that's my present! I'll treasure it always."

Ringabel felt his face warm. Endearment or embarrassment? Sometimes even he couldn't tell.

Tiz had to think for a moment before deciding. "You're wearing the hat, even if your hair is a bit out of place. That's nice. That's my present."

He wanted to argue, not least because he suddenly felt an urge to check himself out in a mirror, but the other three seemed past arguing and sat him down firmly on the loveseat. Edea shoved a box into his hands.

"Open mine first."

Her present was… to his great surprise, the box of paints he'd spoken to her about just hours before in the store. He stared at it, and his first thought was that perhaps he could redo the ornament now that he had good paints and a set of brushes to go along with them. She'd added the brushes without even asking him...

"You bought this for me?" he asked her. His voice sounded funny to his ears. A little thick.

"Well, yeah. Don't get sappy on me now."

"Here's mine," Tiz said, graciously giving Ringabel a moment to wipe at his eyes. Tiz's present was the easel, which came with in a box along with a couple of practice canvases. Ringabel stared at the whole thing, and realized that he knew what Agnès's gift was going to be.

"You set this up," he said to his friends as he set the easel aside. "You've been setting this up all day!"

"Did you seriously just figure that out?" Edea asked, laughing. "What made it obvious?"

Instead of letting him answer, Agnès was handing him her gift. Much smaller than the other two, it was no less lovingly wrapped, with his name in her neat script. "Please open mine next."

As he suspected, Agnès's gift was the charcoal pencil tin. She'd chosen the simplest of them all. He held it to his heart.

"Thank you, all of you. I shall cherish these always."

"Isn't getting presents the best of Crystmas?" Edea asked him, once he had set the pencil tin aside to join the rest of his gifts.

"It's a good part of it," he agreed, a smile on his lips. "But the best part is spending time with those I care for most."

"I told you so," said Agnès.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Airy is Miss-Not-Appearing-In-This-Story I AM SORRY


	3. Fireside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Third part of the Secret Santa gift is a fanart of Alternis and Tiz enjoying the fireside.


End file.
